The novel centers on the 17-year-old protagonist, Charlotte Comyn, who runs away to London to escape a marriage proposal from her childhood companion, John Thornton. Her flight leads her to the home of Beth Prior, an actress and old friend of Charlotte's mother. Despite her questionable reputation, Beth is beautiful, talented, and smart. The British Foreign Secretary has tasked Beth with a secret mission: to travel to Sicily and convince the exiled Hapsburg queen, Maria Carolina, to ally with Britain against Napoleon.
Charlotte accompanies Beth to Palermo, Sicily, where the two are drawn into a world of glamour, aristocratic games, and dangerous political maneuvering. Along the way, both women find adventure and love. The novel combines elements of romance, history, and mystery, with a satisfying conclusion for both heroines.
At the far end of the long white gallery is a painting of a woman, in pale flowing clothes and lying on a sofa beside an open window. It is a painting which leads Flora on, beckoning her away from her childhood, her complaining mother, pert younger sister, and the confines of a small community.
Sulloway's central idea is that siblings develop different personality traits as they compete for parental attention in the "family niche". The strategies they use in this competition shape their long-term behavior.
Firstborns: The first to arrive, these children identify more strongly with their parents and authority. They are more likely to support the status quo, and exhibit traits like being conscientious, responsible, and ambitious.
Later-borns: These children must compete for attention in a different way, leading them to develop different strategies. They tend to be more rebellious, sociable, adventurous, and open to new experiences.
The book provides a guide to using visualization as a tool for self-improvement and healing.
It teaches step-by-step techniques to improve one's life by harnessing the power of imagination.
The second edition includes applications for various areas such as weight control, stress reduction, improving self-esteem, overcoming shyness, and managing conditions like insomnia, depression, and pain
Originally published in 1934, Patterns of Culture is a foundational work in cultural anthropology. In it, Benedict argues that a people's culture is an integrated whole—a "personality writ large". The book explores this thesis through case studies of three contrasting cultures:
First published in 1967, The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel for young adults. The story is narrated by Ponyboy Curtis and centers on the rivalry between two teenage gangs in Oklahoma, the working-class "Greasers" and the wealthy "Socs".
The novel tells the story of Anthony Peardew, a short-story writer who has spent half his life collecting lost objects in an effort to atone for a broken promise. Nearing the end of his life, he bequeaths his house and his vast collection of lost items to his assistant, Laura, tasking her with reuniting the objects with their owners.
'A wonderfully compelling portrait of a family haunted by secrets and lies ... pitch perfect on the chilling, devastating consequences of guilt ' - Sally Brampton
Dr. Jeremy Cramer is a young doctor on the verge of a cutting-edge medical discovery. But his research is derailed when Cramer's son is infected with a rare fatal disease. Now as he races against time to save his child's life, Cramer will make a decision that could shatter his career.Informed Consent is a pulse-pounding medical thriller that complements the current popularity of hospital dramas. With non-stop suspense, snappy dialogue, and witty humor, author Sandra Glahn takes a look at some of today's hot-button issues through this provocative story.
The work of a master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom - necessary, provoking, urgent, rich, complex and rare.'Golding is quite simply the best living writer of the short novel in the English Language.' - The Times
The Haj is a historical saga that follows a Palestinian Arab boy named Ishmael through the birth of Israel and the subsequent displacement and turmoil.
The novel takes readers from Cambridge to the desolate Suffolk coast, where Penrose uncovers a connection between the victims that dates back twenty-five years. As the body count rises and the stakes get higher, both Penrose and Tey must race to stop the killer before another person is attacked.
The memoir is written by Mary Ellin Barrett, the oldest daughter of the famed songwriter Irving Berlin.
It covers her experience of growing up with the legendary composer of American classics such as "White Christmas" and "God Bless America".
Barrett recounts her parents' high-profile and controversial marriage—a Jewish composer and a wealthy Irish-American Catholic socialite.
The book provides a glimpse into a world of privilege and fame in the 1930s and 1940s but also reveals the personal struggles within the family, including the tragic death of an infant son and her father's bouts of depression.
Golden Soak is a 1973 adventure and thriller novel by British author Hammond Innes, known for his well-researched adventure stories set in hostile and remote locations. The book follows a disgraced mining engineer to the arid expanses of Western Australia, where he becomes entangled in a dangerous web of greed, family secrets, and a long-lost mineral strike
 When two new murders occur in Halifax, the investigation draws Taggart and Welles to Lunenburg. They discover a connection to a brutal, unsolved murder that took place 30 years prior and uncover a dark secret within the seemingly picturesque town.Â
The story is set in contemporary Mumbai and explores the complex relationship between two women from different social classes: Sera Dubash, a Parsi housewife, and Bhima, her domestic servant
A Year of Life in China. The book is a memoir based on the year the South African writer Robert Berold spent teaching at a university in Hangzhou, China. It includes contributions from the author's students and touches on China's developing economy, its everyday life, and its respect for ancient texts
The story follows seven-year-old Luke Chandler in rural Arkansas in 1952, as he and his family hire migrant workers to help with the cotton harvest. The book, inspired by Grisham's own childhood, chronicles Luke's journey from innocence to experience as he witnesses events that threaten his family and change their lives forever.Â
It all starts with a body in the library. When Lord Montford is discovered shot, sprawled on the floor of his newly completed library, his faithful hound dead at his feet, a mystery is uncovered, the answer to which has its origins thirty years in the past. Nathaniel Hopson, journeyman for Thomas Chippendale, the famous English furniture designer, and the man who built Montford's sumptuous library, is the first on the scene. Within hours another body is discovered, that of Nathaniel's closest friend John Partridge, his hands badly mutilated. How is it that a Lord of the realm and a cabinetmaker's assistant should both be found dead on the same night, both in suspicious circumstances? Nathaniel is set on a course as the reluctant detective, driven to discover the truth of his friend's mysterious death and his connection with the murder of Lord Montford. In The Grenadillo Box Janet Gleeson has produced a detective story as intricately crafted as a Chippendale cabinet, a gripping story which brings to dramatic life the world of the Eighteenth century.
This Book tells the story of Maurice Hannigan, an 84-year-old Irish man who sits in a hotel bar and, over the course of one evening, raises five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him in his lifetime. Through his stories, which reveal unspoken joy, regret, and tragedy, the life of this one man is powerfully revealed
After her husband's death, Leonora Galloway and her daughter, Penelope, travel to France. Their journey leads them to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, where they uncover a family secret that spans three generations
Looking down from the Eiffel Tower, Alan Greenmor stands on the edge, determined to end it all. As he prepare to jump, his thoughts are interrupted by a cough. To his right is a mysterious stranger in a dark suit, smoking a cigar. This is Yves Dubreuil. The person who will change Alan's life.
A happily married photographer named Callie Perry has her life turned upside down when a new, mysterious family moves in across the street. As Callie grows close to her new neighbor, the sophisticated and seemingly perfect Liddy, she is drawn into a world of wealth and secrets. But as she gets deeper into Liddy's life, Callie discovers that the glamorous exterior hides a darker truth.
A party of gilded youth of both sexes meet at a London railway station to travel by boat-train to the south of France, where a house party awaits them, the whole thing to be paid for by the wealthy and much courted Max...
This is about a passage through a continent filled with the most confusing contrasts: the ageing Soviet jets, on their way to strafe Unita positions against a backdrop of palms and an azure sea; the boy in the Angolan town Viana whose leg had been blown off by a landmine but whose hope and trust seemed to deny the agony of a land torn by bloody warfare; the almost serene stillness of the Tete valley in Mozambique, chilling for its nightmare scenery of burnt-out trucks and its forlorn landscape. Through it, Wender travels deeper into perhaps one of the most inexplicable events and places of this century. Rwanda.
The book is a cycle of love poems, which McKuen numbered rather than giving them individual titles. The author believed this gave them a more subjective, personal feel.Â
Wonderful ... his bent for historical accuracy is unmatched in commercial fiction ... Jakes makes the reader care about his characters - San Francisco Chronicle
